Because I'm so terrible at sticking to whatever trading rules I devise I've decided to experiment with having no set rules (except for my stake), abandoning the Servants, and just trying to proceed on instinct and observation - taking each race on a case by case basis. No trades on some, single trades on some, multiple trades on some, pre-off on some, in-play on some, both per-off and in-play on some... just whatever feels right. Even the odd gamble (though only one of those so far - easy to spot that one on the graph and it was born of frustration right after two bad trades). Most of these trades are on UK horse races but some are Irish and some are Australian too. All have been during the last 4 days.

So far so good...

no system.jpg

My theory being that if I try a bit of everything with a small bank I'll learn more and get more comfortable and, hopefully, stop second guessing myself when I make decisions. Basically it's a 'throw everything at the wall and see what sticks' system. Have any of you expert traders ever been through such a phase in your learning journey or do you think it's a completely stupid idea?

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I'm not in the 'expert' category but doing OK. What you're doing is pretty much what I did /do, I'm definitely not the type that's got a plan that says when I see X I do Y. I just trade what I see, or don't if I don't like the look of it. The exception might be that I think I started trading steamers only, then started looking at both directions.

But the big favour you can do yourself is to load your results into a decent results anayser spreadsheet and start to see where /when /what is working best for you. You won't be able to do that in your head for lots of reasons. Certain times of day were my Achilles heel, then I realised that it was because of the type of race (last race of the day rubbish mainly).

But DON'T have a bet. Especially because you lost a couple. I hope you can see from your graph that the couple of bad losing trades weren't really a big deal. They WILL happen, accept it and don't go on tilt and start trying to get it back in the next 10mins, sometimes it might take all day.

The danger with a bet is that you make more in 2mins than you did in 2 days, your brain say why trade when this is easier, you start to care less about losing a trade because you think you can make it back easily, you lose more so you bet more, the bets are just stabs in the dark because of moves or what the pundit says, any value is already long gone, and the end result is grim.

Sorry to go on..... If you MUST have a bet, only stake what you would consider to be a normal trading loss. If that's normally a pound then never stake more than a pound. The problem is that you might usually trade with a fifty pound note for your couple of quid up or down, that becomes normal so when you bet it's a 'just a tenner'. It loses and suddenly you're down by a day's takings. A losing bet shouldn't cost you more than a losing trade, afterall it was just another trade but with an 'adventurous' exit strategy.